Dear Friends,

We would like to extend our sincere gratitude for your support of the East End Youth Sailing Foundation over the past year. The Foundation relies on the generosity of caring individuals like you to facilitate the preparation, coaching and skill-building needed for high school students to participate and succeed in national and international sailing competition; and to do so in a way that promotes a lasting love of sailing and respect for all aspects of the sport, including seamanship, safety and sportsmanship

Sailing is providing our kids with far more than just an after-school sport. As individuals the kids are becoming leaders in their own right. As teams they are developing skills that will serve them well beyond their high school years. Through sailing they are becoming skilled in the art of compromise, strong critical thinkers, fantastic problem solvers, and masters of cooperation. Their commitment to the sport and the team is evident as they practice until dark, and in temperatures, both on and off the water, that most think is just crazy. All this is only possible with your support.

While the emphasis of the Foundation is on sailing, our true mission is the development of young men and women and sailing is merely the vehicle. By learning the technical demands of sailing and racing a boat, our students also learn much about teamwork, develop a strong sense of responsibility and sportsmanship, and increase their self-confidence. In the five years since the founding of the East End Youth Sailing Foundation, a number of North Fork kids have benefitted from being part of a high school sailing team. Most  of them have continued to sail, in college (including a couple of national collegiate champions) and recreationally, and will hopefully continue to do so throughout their life. More importantly, the lessons learned while sailing and racing have also prepared them to pursue all manner of vocations and careers.

The Foundation provides its educational and training programs to any interested and qualified youth sailor at no cost, drawing on donations by individuals such as you as its primary source of revenue. The primary challenge is to keep the program free of charges for the students.

Our high school dinghy program is currently in its fifth year, with students from six high schools participating. This year we also started a Scholastic Big Boat/Off-Shore Program with our Hobie33 which is docked at the Galley Ho Marina. With this new program we are dovetailing college sailing programs that are building off-shore teams in the realization that not all students are suitable to dinghy sailing. Sailing big boats teaches different aspects of sailing than dinghies and  also opens the door to longer and more challenging sailing trips, overnight trips and races, distance events, match racing, as well as a plethora of cruising and adventure options. We want to make sure that sailors, current and future, have the opportunity to experience bigger boats.

The Foundation has annual operational expenses of just under $20K, primarily for coaching of both the dinghy and off-shore programs (the Foundation is volunteer run but pays its coaches), equipment maintenance and insurance. There are also two specific projects for which the Foundation is fund raising. First, during the coming the winter the Hobie33 which is 35 years old, is to receive a full “makeover”, i.e. new deck layout, new running rigging and new sails. The upgrades will allow us to campaign a competitive boat next year with a crew of high school sailors. Projected cost is $25K. Secondly, the Foundation plans to eventually purchase its own fleet of 420 dinghies. The idea is to buy 12 boats which would allow the Foundation to host regional league as well as national competitive events, both fleet racing and team racing. Projected cost is around $96K.

Again, many thanks for your continued generous support. Without you, we wouldn’t be able to do any of this. If you wish to make a donation to one of the above-described special projects, the Foundation accepts and segregates donor specified funds. Please let us know if you would like additional information or have any questions.

Sincerely,

The East End Youth Sailing Foundation